Whiskey Flat Days

Third Monday of February each year is celebrated in the United States of America as President’s Day in honor of its first President George Washington on occasion of his birthday and also honors his successors in the office. In Kernville near Bakersfield in California this weekend is celebrated as Whiskey Flat Days. 

California and Kern County in particular had some of the largest gold mines in the country before the break of World War 1. One of these mines, the Big Blue Gold Mine, was situated in the southern Sierras near present day Kernville. Alcohol was prohibited in the mines. An industrious man named Adam Hamilton set up shop nearby placing two barrels of whiskey and a plank on top of them to sell the alcohol. The place got the name Whiskey Flat in 1860. Four years later the community felt the name was rather embarrassing to raise young kids and changed it to Kernville after Edward Kern, an artist who accompanied an expedition to the area with Captain Joseph Walker in 1843. 

Starting 1957 the city’s Chamber of Commerce decided to celebrate a weekend annually to celebrate its history, recreating the days from the old Wild West. For 65 years on President Day weekend families gather here for 4 days( Friday to Monday) for fun activities that include a parade, rodeo, a fair, encampment, dining and of course the whiskey. The only year the event was canceled was last year due to the pandemic and this year folks turned out in droves to make up for it. At one of my patient’s beckoning we( my husband and me) went up there on Saturday to participate in the celebrations. The weather was perfect. The drive was beautiful as ever. The parade was fun to watch. The rodeo unfortunately was all sold out. 

It was nice to catch up on the history of the county we live in. Met some elders from the Tubatulabal Native American tribe that lives around the Kern River in the mountains near Kernville. There are about 400 of them, I learnt. One of the elders was displaying some of the stone tools that were used by their ancestors. These were very much like the paataa varvantaa ( grinding flat stone with the roller stone) that my maternal grandmother used to make the masala paste( vaatan) for fish and other curries as well as to make sol kadi. 

On our way back we took some quick stops to see the beautiful waters at Lake Isabella and the dam in the area. The main photo is taken there. It was difficult to take good photos in the town near the parade etc due to the large crowd.

We were home before sunset. 

Picked an Assam Paat saree for the day. It seemed to echo the mood of the celebrations with the multicolored paisley motifs on its body and similar colored elaborate design on its pallu.